Starbound (Preview)

So, I finally buckled down and purchased “Starbound”, a game more like “Terraria” than I originally thought. My son even mistook the game for “Terraria” as he was walking by and didn’t believe me when I told him that no, I wasn’t playing “Terraria”. While “Starbound” looks and feels like “Terraria”, there’s a bit of “Darkout” in there too in the form of an in-game crafting menu. To sum up “Starbound”, you’ll find yourself on a ship without fuel and must beam down to an alien planet to find more. Like “Terraria”, you’ll discover trees, ore, aliens, and other things on a two-dimensional plane. Unlike “Terraria”, you’ll be able to travel to different worlds and decorate your starship & your home planet to your liking, and more.

Starbound (Windows, Mac, Linux)

The game is still Beta (as of 12/20/13) and as such, character wipes and other changes are fairly regular. For those of you hitting 5 or 10 frames per second (like I was), close Steam, open the properties menu on Steam’s shortcut icon, and turn off the compatibility option under the compatibility tab. This also solved my crash to desktop problem when enabling fullscreen. The control scheme is still a bit off, as I am unable to rebind keys in the current version of the game. It also takes a little time to get used to the fact that your character points in the direction of your mouse cursor. Even still, I’m having a blast learning the ins and outs, even though it can be frustrating at times not knowing what to do or how to do it.

You can buy into the Early Access on Steam for $14.99 and try it for yourself, though again, expect character wipes and the like. If that doesn’t bother you, then you’re in for a real treat. All of the features aren’t implemented yet, but there’s enough here to keep you busy for a while. If you’d rather sit on it for a bit, feel free to check out my gameplay sessions below.

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You can learn more about and purchase into the Alpha by visiting the following websites: